UPDATE: Make sure you sign the VA Ratify ERA petition!
Among other supposed horrors laid out by former Virginia Del “Sideshow Bob” Marshall (Far-Right, Homophobic, Anti-Choice R) – defeated by transgender woman (now-Delegate) Danica Roem (D) in November 2017 – went on Trumpster radio the other day to rant against the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). See below for the audio, and for a few “highlights” from his loony-tunes, hysterical fear-mongering blather.
- “Sideshow Bob” starts off by insulting ERA advocates: “Most of the advocates for this in Virginia may not even been born in 1972 or 1984] and they don’t know the debate and they’re skirting over a lot of things, leaving much to be desired.”
- He raises the prospect of being forced to have “men and women in the same jail cell.”
- “Sideshow Bob” agrees with the Trumpster host that under the ERA, “you have no right to have [women] cover their top – if they feel like going bare chested you can’t do a darn thing about it.”
- On bathrooms and locker rooms (an obsession of right wingnuts like “Sideshow Bob”) – Marshall claims, “you cannot make a distinction based on human sexual differentiation now this will certainly apply in all public facilities.”
- According to “Sideshow Bob,” the motivation of ERA advocates is that “it’s good politics for them; they want to come out and say these nasty Republicans are against equal rights for women”
- Oh, and more supposed horrors: “you’re going to shut these private schools because they cannot comply with the onerous burdens that are going to be put on them.”
- And again, “Sideshow Bob” disses pro-ERA advocates – “I wish some of these people would present some real analyses as opposed to just act like a bunch of cheerleaders for stuff.” Yes, “Sideshow Bob” referred to ERA advocates as “cheerleaders.” Lovely.
So yeah, this is all crazy s***, but not surprising, given that Bob Marshall is the same guy who once claimed that “disabled children are God’s punishment to women who have aborted their first pregnancy”, who once mused insanely about men’s “throwing arms” and women’s “cradling arms,” who was the co-author of the anti-gay-marriage “Marshall-Newman amendment (and who is a virulent, raging homophobe, who wanted to ban “active homosexuals” from Virginia’s National Guard). Let’s all just be deleriously happy that Danica Roem crushed “Sideshow Bob” in November 2017, and that “Sideshow Bob” doesn’t appear to be seeking elective office again (although even if he does, he’ll lose badly again).
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